An engineers view on knowledge management

Earlier this week,I attended a workshop on knowledge management, organised by the Flemish Engineers. Most people in the audience were new to knowledge management, or looking to start up a project. But all were interested and wanted to learn more. In small groups, we were asked to discuss about knowledge management : what knowledge is around in a department, is it available, how can it be shared, …

Our group came up with this (the intention was to create a mind map, but we were more creative) :

– Knowledge : experience, insight, … This is the domain of tacit knowledge.

– Culture and processes : knowledge transfer, communities of practice, coaching, meetings, … Processes can become part of an organisation’s culture when they happen naturally and unconsciously.

– Governance : knowledge matrix, CV of a company, … This is a holistic view on the knowledge management efforts, including strategy and helicopter view.

We did not go into all the details, but some of the intersections are interesting. I like to put ‘rules of thumb’ in the intersection explicit-tacit. One can codify a rule of thumb in a formula, but it should always be used by an experienced person only.

Networking was not on the radar screen, but it belongs in the ‘Culture and Processes’ bucket. It can be a company culture when networking is natural, or it can be stimulated and organised as a process. A simple ‘Who is who’ – directory can be a good starting point. My preference is to use a social networking tool like LinkedIn where all team members can keep an updated profile. A big advantage of using an external tool is that this network survives company reorganisations and personal career moves.